Wednesday, December 1, 2010

The winter kitchen





The back patio with the palapa we had built last year had a double sink in it (just to the right of the pole) but we were always gerry-rigging the barbeque on boards and wishing on really hot days that we didn't have to cook in the house at all.









So Raul (who built our walls, palapa and wonderful pool) and Ramon came today to start our our outdoor kitchen. The idea is to install a cement counter top the same height as the sink. First they drilled holes into the wall for the rebar.






Then they built the walls on either end with the "skinny" blocks, and set the formwork on the top for the counter, and underneath for the storage shelf.







Last step today was to mix and pour the concrete (mixed on the road and carried in by the bucket load). These guys always amaze us at how strong they are. They started at 8, left at 5 and will be back at 8 am to put the cement finish over the blocks and remove the form work. Rain is predicted for tomorrow, but since it is under the palapa, it will be fine.
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Pool day

Miki has now finished painting the back patio deck in a soft terra cotta colour. Finally we can unwrap the pool and start filling it.
When we left in April, we drained the pool completely, and left it covered in plywood panels, set on a slope to allow for water run off, and then covered those panels with 2 heavy duty tarps. This is how it looked when we got here - a couple of rips in the outer tarp, but the inner one was fine, with no water entering the empty pool in our absence.






The plywood panels under the tarps.











This much slope was enough to keep the water from rainfall running off the panels and down the drain, rather than into the pool.






There were several pesky cockroaches who had taken up residence, but after a good sweep and scrub with a little bleach water, it was pristine and ready to fill.
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